Benjamin Tammuz

Benjamin Tammuz was born in Ukraine in 1919, made aliyah with his family in 1924, and later volunteered for the Palmah. He studied art history at the Sorbonne and was a noted painter and sculptor active in the Canaanite Movement in Israel. The Canaanites advocated the creation of a “Hebrew” culture that was motivated in part by a desire for Jewish-Arab coexistence. Tammuz spent many years as an editor for Haaretz where he wrote a popular satiric column. The recipient of numerous literary prizes in Israel, Tammuz has also been published widely in translation. His works in English include Requiem for Na’aman (New American Library, 1982), The Orchard (Copper Beech Press, 1984), and Minotaur (Europa Editions, 2005). Tammuz died in 1989.

Arts and Culture

The Tale of an Olive Tree

By Benjamin Tammuz

Benjamin Tammuz (1919-1989) was one of Israel’s most well-known writers, artists, and critics. “The Tale of an Olive Tree” reveals Tammuz’s famed gift for satire. Though first published in 1950, this story sounds remarkably contemporary and demonstrates that even the founders of Israeli culture were able to make pointed indictments of their society’s shortcomings. – Adam Rovner, Hebrew translations editor